Alcohol readers next front in keeping criminals clean

Nick Ralston

The state may soon be able to keep track of not only where an electronically monitored criminal is but what they are drinking.

Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin is examining a GPS device that can pinpoint an offender's location and give a reading of their blood-alcohol level via their perspiration.

It would be an additional tool in keeping track of offenders who may be banned from drinking as part of their release back into the community.

''Alcohol monitoring is something that is very important and relevant to us,'' Mr Severin said.

''It can show within about 20 minutes … if someone has started to drink where they have a prohibition order in place or [a] condition of their release is not to drink.''

The Department of Corrective Services will next month call for tenders for the next generation of electronic monitoring devices. The alcohol-reading device is under consideration but Mr Severin said for the first time the department will ask developers for their innovative ways to further enhance how offenders are monitored while in the community.

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He has also recently been shown a voice-recognition program that can ring offenders, who are under a curfew, at home several times throughout an evening.

It uses a ''voice imprint'' so it can't be tricked by someone imitating the offender's voice or by using a recording.

''If we ring, you'd better be home or you'll be in trouble,'' Mr Severin said.

Bringing corrective services up to date with the latest technology is a priority for Mr Severin, who this month marks a year as the state's prison boss.

This week, he also pushed the button on the first Australian trial of mobile-phone jamming that will take place at Lithgow jail. The initiative, aimed at stopping the illegal use of smuggled phones by inmates, had been discussed for a decade before it finally began on Tuesday.

''I'm looking at really maximising the use of technology in a sensible way but it will never replace good, personal supervision,'' Mr Severin said.

If we ring, you'd better be home or you'll be in trouble.

It has been a year of change for Mr Severin, who was touted as as a ''reformer'' when he took over the job from Ron Woodham, who, after over decade as commissioner, had become known for his tough, ''lock 'em up'' approach.

Mr Severin started his working life as a prison officer in his native Germany and, before coming to NSW, was the prisons' chief in South Australia. Before that, he worked in the Queensland system.

Mr Severin has been criticised in some quarters over a decision to merge two units that were tasked with overseeing offenders in the community.

Jobs were lost but the change has meant those tasked with monitoring offenders in the new unit operate out of 60 locations across the state instead of just nine.

It puts those monitoring closer to offenders and the new unit has an emphasis on keeping a closer watch on high-risk offenders.

As a result, there has been a 15 per cent increase in the supervision checks on all serious high-risk offenders and a 22 per cent increase in contact made with serious sex offenders.

It was a tough decision, Mr Severin said, but in the past 12 months he has learnt any change in the NSW justice system will be closely scrutinised.

''Sydney is very focused on all matters law and order,'' he said. ''There are a lot of opinions and everyone has one.''